Eat Here: Eataly Cafe Via LaGrange

  Luckily I have a friend with inside knowledge that the new small satellite Eataly Store/Cafe/ Restaurant (compared to the 3 story mega-store in Lingotto), is the new hip place to eat. Also lucky, it's just around the corner from my house.

The new Eataly on Via LaGrange in Torino has an atmosphere of a vintage diner mixed with a new breed of organic restaurant. The whole front of the cafe is glass and with the kitchen in the front, from the street you could watch the chefs cook pasta all day.

Long tall tables with barstools greet you once inside that encourage you to sit closely to strangers mostly because you have no other choice. Once you settled in next to your new best friends, a waiter will come over and take your order. The menu is short and changes everyday according to the chef's specials. A pasta of the day, a salad of the day, or a cheese and salami plate of the day and an organic beer or wine to drink.

Everything was fresh and delicious. Simple, not complicated. The cafe is also a grocery store. Once you have finished eating, you can pick up your fresh pasta, wine, some produce, and baking goods. And that's not all. They are also a gelatoria with several combinations of toppings to make a sundae. With ALL of that under one roof I wondered how they were going to pack so much stuff into such a small space... but somehow they make it work.